What's Your Dream?

"I have a dream that one day on the red hills ofAnd yet in our illusory states of cozy comfort,
Georgia, sons of former slaves and sons ofwe sometimes ignore these atrocities because
former slave owners will be able to sit downaddressing them might require some
together at the table of brotherhood....I have ainconvenience. Still, they rumble in the corners of
dream that my four little children will one day liveour consciousness like a simmering storm. It's as
in a nation where they will not be judged by thethough we know the squall is coming and yet on
color of their skin but by the content of theirsome level we don't really believe it will ever
character."-Martin Luther King, Jr., August, 28th,materialize. So we go on about our coffee
1963cocktail talk, making pleasant conversation while
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was deeply inspired bysometimes bickering and babbling about our
Mahatma Gandhi's peaceful protests in India, whichcomplaints over this and that. But at the end of
were influential in freeing nearly a fifth of thethe day, who is staring back at us in the mirror
human race. And so, he used Gandhi's approachas we brush our teeth and prepare to put on our
of non-violence to begin a movement forfuzzy slippers? Who is really accountable for
eliminating racism (A Tribute to Martin Luther King,creating the changes that will truly make a
Denise Noe, 1/14/07). For King, it was not aboutdifference?
fighting against something, but rather transcendingEvery single one of us is responsible. Responsible
and overcoming. Instead of resisting the masterto ourselves and responsible to each other.
slave paradigm, which was still fully operativeResponsible for noticing what we are for instead
during his life-time, he set out to facilitate theof what we are against. Responsible for noticing
growth of the human spirit beyond hatred,people's strengths and not their weaknesses.
separation, lack, and limitation. King focused onResponsible for discovering what we want to
what he was for, not what he was against.change, and then taking steps to get started (or
When Rosa Parks refused to go to the back ofcontinue) in making change happen.
the bus on December 1, 1955 and wasGandhi said, "Become the change you want to
subsequently arrested, King became involved.see in the world."
Eventually the U.S. Supreme Court ruled thatIf you could become this change, what would that
Montgomery, Alabama's policy of bus segregationlook like? How would you begin (or continue) to
was unconstitutional. This event was the beginningfollow your dream for transformation, starting
of an unprecedented revolution of justice makingwith yourself? It may be inconvenient to launch
for the human race.this mysterious voyage. And yet, ask yourself
If Martin Luther King, Jr. had not been taken bywhich is the greater risk? Is it moving forward
an assasin's bullet in 1968, nearly forty years ago,out of your comfort zone, or staying put in the
what might he say about our current state offamiliar, predictable patterns of your existence?
affairs as a nation...as a world? Today, it wouldWhen you realize that you are a limitless being,
seem utterly absurd to think about sendingdoesn't it make you sort of itchy to see what
someone to the back of the bus because of heryou can create?
his racial orientation. Nonetheless there are otherWhat are you FOR? What is your dream? How
atrocities, which persist, and even abound. Wedo you want to be remembered forty years
know them by heart. Sometimes they are in thefrom now? You are magnificent. Show yourself.
distance and all too often, they can be close toShow the world.
home.